How to Bring the Great Wave Indoors
Art Projector lets you virtually display the world’s best art, in real size, inside your own home. Make sure you've downloaded the Google Arts & Culture app. Jump into the app and tap the camera icon.
Make sure to allow the app access to your phone’s camera, then select ‘Art Projector’ from the available options to get curating. First, point your camera at the ground and move it round to place the artwork on a stand. Try picking a patterned, well-lit surface.
Tap or drag your chosen artwork and it’ll appear full size in the room, turning your house into a rival for the Met or the Louvre! Scroll along to find Hokusai’s Great Wave Off Kanagawa.
The painting you’ve projected has the real physical dimensions and qualities of the original, so you can walk around and even get up close by approaching the painting or moving your phone towards it. The work remains high-def, even as you get right up close!
Hokusai was a master of the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock technique, which was a huge influence on the later Impressionists in Europe (Monet hung a print of The Great Wave in his house in Giverny where he painted the Water Lilies series). Viewing this work up close in Art Projector, you can appreciate the detailed carving of the woodblock, and the layers used to apply each color, by focusing on the fingers and bubbles of the curling surf.
The print is part of a series called Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, showing the mountain from various viewpoints as a locus connecting many different lives in Edo (modern day Tokyo). In this most famous print from the series, the mountain seems to disappear beneath the towering wave, emphasising its power, as the fishing boats beneath are overcome.
Point the breaking wave anywhere around the house (why not try the shower or the sink), and make waves with Hokusai!
